Cartercar Company

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Cartercar emblem
Cartercar Model H Touring; Two-cylinder from 1909

The Cartercar Company was an American automobile manufacturer that was based in Jackson (Michigan) in 1905 , Detroit (Michigan) in 1906 and Pontiac (Michigan) from 1907–1915 .

history

Byron J. Carter founded the Motorcar Company in Jackson in 1905 after leaving the Jackson Automobile Company in a dispute with his partners over the selection of transmissions. At the end of the year, the new company moved to Detroit because its financiers were based there. In early 1907, Carter renamed his company the Cartercar Company . In November 1908 the company relocated again after taking over the Pontiac Spring & Wagon Works in Pontiac , which manufactured leaf springs , carriages, wagons and a highwheeler . Its owners, Albert G. North and Harry G. Hamilton , had acquired the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company in 1905 , which manufactured commercial vehicles and smaller buses . It was not the subject of this sale. In return, North and Hamilton received shares in Cartercar.

The Cartercar was highly praised in the press , especially because of its friction disk drive . This friction disk transmission is a simple variant of the rolling element transmission and an indirect forerunner of today's CVT ; both offer continuously variable drive ratios. After about 6500 km, the paper fiber disks that were part of the gearbox had to be replaced, but this only cost US $ 5, i.e. half the price of a new grease filling for a normal spur gear.

From the first to the second full year of production, sales doubled; In 1906 there were 101 pieces, in 1907 it was 264. In the following year 325 copies were sold.

General Motors

George Emory Daniels (1875–1954) directed Cartercar from 1909 to 1912
Cartercar four-cylinder from 1912

On October 26, 1909, Cartercar was taken over by General Motors (GM). This made the company one of the 25 companies that their founder, William C. Durant , had acquired as a holding company in the year and a half after GM was founded; Another was the aforementioned Rapid Motor Vehicle Company , which General Motors gradually organized as the commercial vehicle division of the group and finally as GMC . Within a few days, GM President George E. Daniels (1875–1954) moved to the position of Managing Director of Cartercar.

Like most of Durant's purchases, this acquisition was speculative. Although he avoided technologies such as electric or steam drives, his companies covered very different price segments and were looking for unique technical features. At Elmore it was the two-stroke engine, Rapid and Reliance Motor Truck Company covered the commercial vehicle sector and at Cartercar it was the friction transmission. Durant had read about it and was therefore making a check on the future. The technical development, which quickly detached itself from the friction gear, showed that it was not covered.

In 1910, General Motors had a debt of US $ 15 million. Some of the acquisitions were very profitable, such as Cadillac , Buick and Oakland , but that was not enough to absorb the losses of other companies. The banks forced Durant to resign and put Frank L. Storrow (1864–1926) through as their representative in the presidency. A new team under his leadership gradually managed to sort out the financial chaos. He stayed in office for only two months, but the work was continued by his successors Thomas Neal and above all Charles W. Nash (1861-1948) and the group was restructured. Numerous smaller, unprofitable companies fell by the wayside. The Cartercar Company was just one of them. Instead of converting production to a more modern concept and giving the brand a new image, it was discontinued in 1914 in favor of the very successful Oakland . The decision made sense because both companies served similar markets and Oakland desperately needed larger capacity; In addition, the sales figures forecast by Durant of 1,000 to 2,000 vehicles per year seemed unattainable. Daniels then became President of Oakland .

When asked why he bought Cartercar, Durant later replied, “You say I shouldn't have bought Cartercar. Yes, how could anyone know that Cartercar wasn't going to be right? They had the friction disc drive that no other car had. How would I know what these engineers would say next? "

Automobiles

Cartercar Model R Touring; Four-cylinder from 1912. The exhibiting museum is exaggerating a bit; not the Cartercar, but the Metz , built from 1909 to 1919, was the most successful car with a friction transmission.

The company began with a single-cylinder engine, later came two-cylinder boxer engines that were used until 1909. From 1910 only four-cylinder engines were installed. Two models, both with four-cylinder block engines, appeared in 1912; the R model had a displacement of 4160 cm³, while the S model had a displacement of 5437 cm³. Both propelled the rear wheels via a chain. There were other cars with friction disc gears, like the Lambert , the Metz and the Petrel, but none of them were produced as long as the Cartercar.

Disaster struck when Byron Carter was killed trying to start a parked car in 1908. The recoiling starter crank struck him in the cheek and caused a wound that developed gangrene , which was ultimately fatal. Carter was a personal friend of Henry M. Leland , the founder of Cadillac . His tragic death led to the development of the self-starter (introduced in 1912), the first successful electric starter, so that one could do without the dangerous starting crank in the future.

Because you could set any gear ratio with the friction disc transmission and were not tied to fixed gears, the Cartercar was touted as the “car with a thousand gears”. Another promotional text claimed, "It is difficult to upgrade a Cartercar".

Models

Model /
rating according to ALAM 		Construction period cylinder Displacement power wheelbase Remarks
A. 1905 1 6.5 bhp (4.8 kW) 1905 mm
B. 1905 1 7.5 bhp (5.5 kW) 1905 mm
C. 1905 2 boxers 10 bhp (7.4 kW) 1981 mm
20 hp
20 HP ALAM 		1906 2 boxers 2896 cc 20 bhp (14.7 kW) 2388 mm
22/24 hp
20 HP ALAM 		1907 2 boxers 2896 cc 22 bhp (16.4 kW) 2388 mm
25 hp
24.2 HP ALAM 		1908 2 boxers 3504 cc 25 bhp (18.4 kW) 2438 mm
H 18/20 hp
18 HP ALAM 		1909 2 boxers 2468 cc 18 bhp (13.4 kW) 2540 mm
G / K 22/24 hp
20 HP ALAM 		1909 2 boxers 2896 cc 22 bhp (16.4 kW) 2616 mm
H
25.6 HP ALAM 		1910 4 row 3295 cc 25 bhp (18.4 kW) 2540 mm
L
28.9 HP ALAM 		1910-1911 4 row 4185 cc 30 bhp (22.4 kW) 2540-2794 mm 1910: 30/35 hp
1911: 35 hp
T
16.2 HP ALAM 		1911 2 boxers 2345 cc 2489 mm
H
25.6 HP ALAM 		1911-1912 4 row 3295 cc 30 bhp (22 kW) 2591 mm
M
32.4 HP ALAM 		1911 4 row 4691 cc 40 bhp (29 kW) 3048 mm
R
27.23 HP ALAM 		1912 4 row 4161 cc 40 bhp (29 kW) 2845 mm
S
32.4 HP ALAM 		1912 4 row 5473 cc 45 HP ALAM 3099 mm
5
27.23 HP ALAM 		1913-1914 4 row 4161 cc 40 bhp (29 kW) 2946 mm
7/9
19.6 HP ALAM 		1914-1915 4 row 3153 cc 31 bhp (23 kW) 2692 mm 1914: Model 7
1915: Model 9

Sources and table NACC Horse-Power Rating .

literature

NACC Horse Power Rating.
  • David Burgess Wise: The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Automobiles. Greenwich Editions, London 2004, ISBN 0-86288-258-3 . (English).
  • Beverly Rae Kimes (ed.), Henry Austin Clark Jr.: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. 3. Edition. Krause Publications, Iola WI, 1996; ISBN 0-87341-428-4 .
  • Axel Madsen: The Deal Maker: How William C. Durant made General Motors. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (1999), ISBN 0-4713-9523-4 .
  • Robert D. Dluhy: American Automobiles of the Brass Era: Essential Specifications of 4,000+ Gasoline Powered Passenger Cars, 1906-1915, with a Statistical and Historical Overview. McFarland & Co Inc. Publishers, Jefferson NC (2013); ISBN 0-78647-136-0 .

Web links

Commons : Cartercar  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942 , 1996, p. 413 (Daniels).
  2. ↑ a b c d e Beverly Ray Kimes, Henry Austin Clark Jr .: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. Krause Publications, Iola 1985, ISBN 0-87341-045-9 . (English)
  3. ↑ a b coachbuilt.com: Daniels Motor Car Co., Daniels Motor Co.
  4. ↑ Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942 , 1996, pp. 1050-1053 (Oakland).
  5. ↑ Pelfrey, William: Billy, Alfred, and General Motors: The Story of Two Unique Men, A Legendary Company, and a Remarkable Time in American History. , AMACOM, New York (2006), ISBN 0-8144-0869-9
  6. ^ Madsen: The Deal Maker: How William C. Durant made General Motors. 1999, pp. 140-141.
  7. ↑ a b c d e Dluhy: American Automobiles of the Brass Era. 2013, p. 64.
  8. ↑ a b Dluhy: American Automobiles of the Brass Era. 2013, p. 65.